Britons who take cocaine are destroying Colombia and killing Colombians

Britons who take cocaine are destroying Colombia and killing Colombians, the country’s president says.

In an exclusive interview at the presidential palace in Bogotá, Juan Manuel Santos highlighted the price paid by the South American nation for the cocaine trade ahead of a visit to Britain later this month.

Colombia is emerging from a four decade-long civil war involving both left-wing guerillas like Farc and right-wing paramilitaries, who have been funded by drug trafficking.

Mr Santos, 60, said Colombia, the world centre of the cocaine trade, had suffered more than any other country in the world from the West’s insatiable appetite for the drug.

He said: ‘I say that every time somebody in London sniffs coke he destroys the environment here in the tropical forests – because it stimulates deforestation – and probably kills a couple of people.’

The president, who swept to power last year after a landslide election victory, has urged world leaders to consider a new approach to tackling drugs and said he was prepared to legalise marijuana if other countries did the same.

Mr Santos said he would even consider legalising cocaine as a possible solution and insisted Colombia had a ‘certain moral authority to discuss this issue’ as it has lost so much from the drugs trade.

A key priority for Colombia – in common with other Latin American countries such as Mexico, which have seen thousands killed in drug-related violence – is reducing demand in the US and Europe.

‘What I think the world should do is sit down and rationally discuss this problem which is growing – it’s not diminishing, it’s growing,’ he said.
Mr Santos added: ‘We are willing to explore new avenues but in the meantime we need to continue our policy of attacking each link of the chain because for us it’s a matter of national security.

‘The drug trafficking is what finances all of the violent groups in Colombia. We are the country who has suffered most, more than any other country, so for us we have no alternative in the meantime but to fight, with everything we have, the cultivation, the labs, money laundering, the assets, consumption – all the links in the chain.’ The affable London-educated politician and former journalist was in buoyant mood just three days after announcing how government troops had killed 63-year-old Alfonso Cano, the leader of Marxist rebel group Farc, in his jungle hideout.

He said: ‘This is the biggest blow to Farc in their history. What happened to Cano is proof we can take any of them, anywhere.’

But Mr Santos is aware that despite a rapidly growing economy, described as an ‘ideal market for British companies’, the country still has far to go – Colombia has the worst human rights record in the western hemisphere and leads the world in killings of trade unionists.

Mr Santos, who said he has ‘clicked’ with David Cameron and remains a ‘very good friend’ of Tony Blair, said: ‘Of course there room for improvement, we’re still not a paradise. I’m the first one to recognise that and that’s why we have to redouble our efforts.’

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